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Sunday, May 27, 2012

Planting Hope

Yesterday I had several new trees planted around our house. They are colorful Forest Pansy Redbuds, Seven Son Flower Trees, and White Fringe Trees, among others. They are small but very ambitious. I hope they will provide many years of beauty, interest, and shade. Right now they represent for me the new hope we are feeling for Dante.

Forest Pansy Redbud

Before going further, I would like to thank each and every one who, regardless of whether I post, keeps Dante in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you for being a source of love and healing for my son. I wish that faith and hope-filled connection for every single child. I call it my “life line” and it is a blessing. And now to the news…

We just finished week 16 of the Modified Atkins Diet for seizures and this past week things were significantly different. Going back a couple of weeks ago, Dante was again super weak, as he has been on and off with this diet. I decided that I wanted to try a new homeopath who would work with Dante’s remedy more aggressively than our current one. I felt Dante should be getting more support from his remedy, which he had been on for a month already. I just was not seeing the results I expect from homeopathy. What followed is an example of the mysterious ways homeopathy works.

I trust my personal homeopath and had asked him several times for his thoughts on Dante. My homeopath was very reserved given that Dante was seeing a different person, but the last time I asked him for his advice he said he thought the homeopathic remedy Helium*(not the gas!) might help Dante. A couple of days after stopping the Lycopodium Dante had been taking, I gave him a dose of Helium 1M. The day after the dose Dante had much more energy, and again the day after that. Interestingly enough, he also had liquid BMs both days. This is a typical detox reaction which may happen after a remedy starts working. I was cautiously optimistic. Three days later I thought he was becoming weak again and gave him another dose. I was "going rouge" here, as no one had directly advised me on the dose and frequency. But I figured that I would either see an impact, or nothing would happen – but I felt I had nothing to lose. Dante again had liquid bowel movements.

The week following the Helium doses was very up and down. Dante’s seizure pattern began to change, he had a few stronger seizures and some hiccup-like ones, but the average number of seizures went from 14/day to 11/day from the week before. I took that as a good sign.

This past week, two weeks after the strong Helium dose, Dante had an average of 3 seizures per day. THREE! The graph showing his seizure frequency is going down!

I'm not about to say that the Helium did the full trick here, but Homeopathy does work in mysterious ways.From my personal experience, I expected a noticeable shift if the Lycopodium remedy was indeed working for Dante.Instead, the shift came after the Helium.I am not able to prove with 100% certainty that the Helium caused the change in Dante, but at the very least it seems to be supporting the other efforts going on. First and foremost, the diet. On top of that, I think there are two other things that have contributed to the improvements.

First, Coconut Oil: The MAD diet forces your body to burn fat instead of glucose to get its energy; this is called “ketosis”. Since the carbohydrates are very limited on this diet, if you’re not consuming enough fat, you will not have enough energy. Most children on the diet are not weak. They are able to drink cream and eat cheese. I thought I was giving Dante plenty of fat. But Dante’s diet is casein (dairy) free—so he doesn’t get the same fats other kids do. That means that I need to feed him other types of fat, and in sufficient amounts, to get his energy up. I finally made the connection that when he eats enough during the day, the next day he has great energy. But Dante did not want to eat much. That’s where the coconut oil comes in.

Coconut oil is also nature's richest source of medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs), also called medium-chain triglycerides or MCTs. By contrast, most common vegetable or seed oils are comprised of long chain fatty acids (LCFAs), also known as long-chain triglycerides or LCTs.

LCTs are large molecules, so they are difficult for your body to break down and are predominantly stored as fat.

But MCTs (7) , being smaller, are easily digested and immediately burned by your liver for energy -- like carbohydrates, but without theinsulinspike. MCTs actually boost your metabolism and help your body use fat for energy, as opposed to storing it, so it can actually help you become leaner.

Back in the 1940s, farmers discovered this effect accidentally when they tried using inexpensive coconut oil to fatten their livestock.

It didn't work!

Instead, coconut oil made the animals lean, active and hungry.

Based on this description, coconut oil is the perfect fat to make Dante want to eat more, give him energy quickly, and prevent an insulin spike. Keeping insulin levels constant is another way to prevent seizures, so this oil is a win-win-win! Increasing the coconut oil Dante takes has definitely made him eat more, and his energy has been constant and good all week.

The second thing Dante has taken lately is Quinton Isotonic. This product has been around since 1897 and has historically been used to treat malnourished children and adults. It is marine plasma which is supposed to regenerate your internal “terrain” and support you during detoxification. This helped him heal from a gastrointestinal virus he had several weeks ago; it was a good way to make sure he did not dehydrate. I’m sure it has also helped him with his seizures, although I can’t tell how much. This product in excess causes constipation, so I want to decrease it and watch the impact on Dante’s seizures.

Dante's "shift" started right after the first Helium dose. I can't prove the Helium caused all the changes, but the week I gave him the dose started with 23 seizures and a very weak boy. Exactly two weeks later he was down to 2 seizures and very good energy, and that trend continued all through the past week. I haven't changed anything else; I think the numbers sure are incredible.

Dante weak on Lycopodium, Dante strong after the Helium dose

Thank God for Trees! Dreaming about my garden has kept me sane during this roller-coaster ride through seizures. Although the trend we’re seeing in Dante is very positive, we're longing for consistency. I mean consistent energy, joy, connection and NO SEIZURES. Please pray for him! As my optimistic little trees get bigger and stronger, so will Dante!

*There is not a lot of information about the remedy Helium on the web, but it is a remedy often recommended for autistic individuals. Here is a case where it worked.

Oh, so happy to read this update. I've been wondering how Dante is doing. Dante is never far from my thoughts... :-)

Wow -- I'm so glad to hear how well he is doing on the Modified Atkins Diet, Helium, coconut oil and Quinton Isotonic. I've been hearing so much good stuff about Quinton Isotonic from you and other moms, and I'm a big fan of coconut oil as well.

I also love that you planted several new trees -- trees that represent hope for Dante. So happy for you, for Dante and for your whole family...